(reftex)Problems and Work-Arounds

Problems and Work-arounds
=========================
* LaTeX commands
`\input', `\include', `\bibliography' and `\section' (etc.)
statements have to be first on a line (except for white space).
* Commented regions
RefTeX sees also labels in regions commented out and will refuse to
make duplicates of such labels. This is considered to be a
feature.
* Wrong section numbers
When using partial scans (`reftex-enable-partial-scans'), the
section numbers in the table of contents may eventually become
wrong. A full scan will fix this.
* Local settings
The label environment definitions in `reftex-label-alist' are
global and apply to all documents. If you need to make definitions
local to a document, because they would interfere with settings in
other documents, you should use AUCTeX and set up style files with
calls to `reftex-add-label-environments', `reftex-set-cite-format',
`reftex-add-index-macros', and `reftex-add-section-levels'.
Settings made with these functions remain local to the current
document. Note:AUCTeX.
* Funny display in selection buffer
When using packages which make the buffer representation of a file
different from its disk representation (e.g. x-symbol, isotex,
iso-cvt) you may find that RefTeX's parsing information sometimes
reflects the disk state of a file. This happens only in
_unvisited_ parts of a multifile document, because RefTeX visits
these files literally for speed reasons. Then both short context
and section headings may look different from what you usually see
on your screen. In rare cases `reftex-toc' may have problems to
jump to an affected section heading. There are three possible
ways to deal with this:
- `(setq reftex-keep-temporary-buffers t)'
This implies that RefTeX will load all parts of a multifile
document into Emacs (i.e. there won't be any temporary
buffers).
- `(setq reftex-initialize-temporary-buffers t)'
This means full initialization of temporary buffers. It
involves a penalty when the same unvisited file is used for
lookup often.
- Set `reftex-initialize-temporary-buffers' to a list of hook
functions doing a minimal initialization.
See also the variable `reftex-refontify-context'.
* Labels as arguments to \begin
Some packages use an additional argument to a `\begin' macro to
specify a label. E.g. Lamport's `pf.sty' uses both
\step{LABEL}{CLAIM} and \begin{step+}{LABEL}
CLAIM
\end{step+}
We need to trick RefTeX into swallowing this:
;; Configuration for Lamport's pf.sty
(setq reftex-label-alist
'(("\\step{*}{}" ?p "st:" "~\\stepref{%s}" 2 ("Step" "St."))
("\\begin{step+}{*}" ?p "st:" "~\\stepref{%s}" 1000)))
The first line is just a normal configuration for a macro. For the
`step+' environment we actually tell RefTeX to look for the
_macro_ `\begin{step+}' and interpret the _first_ argument (which
really is a second argument to the macro `\begin') as a label of
type `?p'. Argument count for this macro starts only after the
`{step+}', also when specifying how to get context.
* Idle timers in XEmacs
In XEmacs, idle timer restart does not work reliably after fast
keystrokes. Therefore RefTeX currently uses the post command hook
to start the timer used for automatic crossref information. When
this bug gets fixed, a real idle timer can be requested with
(setq reftex-use-itimer-in-xemacs t)
* Viper mode
With Viper mode prior to Vipers version 3.01, you need to protect
RefTeX's keymaps with
(viper-harness-minor-mode "reftex")